Master Thesis Work

• Topic: Light manipulation of 3D printed photoswitchable scaffold for mechanical stimulation

• Motivation: Photoswitchable scaffolds are promising platforms for a biophysical understanding of mechanotransduction which allow photomechanical stimulation of cellular proteins in a molecular lever, thus controlling mechanosensing in cells and control cellular functions (e.g. cell adhesion and cell differentiation) in a user-defined manner. Reported examples mainly deal with the response of cell adhesion to forces on the azobenzene-functionalized surface. Therefore, in this work, we apply an azobenzene which performs a high frequency oscillation upon illumination with visible light in a 3D matrix. Moreover, the light-based 3D printing is selected as a strategy to print scaffolds and open possibilities for the fabrication of complex multifunctional structures, eventually allowing for the quantitative probing of mechanical interactions between cellular proteins and photoswitchable azobenzene in 3D. 

• Requirements: 
  • The candidate should have previous synthesis experience. 
  • A basic knowledge of chemistry and material science is required. 

• Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Christine Selhuber-Unkel, Dr. Qiyang Jiang 
• Starting date: As soon as possible 
• Submission until: six-months Thesis 
• Contact: qiyang.jiang@uni-heidelberg.de

HiWi position